Take two thick slices of Noonie's day old bread, smear Honey Cup honey mustard
liberally over both. Cover both slices with green leaf lettuce. Then on one slice only lay smoked turkey on the lettuce,
a tomato slice on the turkey and sprinkle it with shredded carrot. Then on the lay a slice of provolone cheese over the
carrot then a green pepper ring on top of the cheese. Sprikle with sprouts. Cover with the other slice, lettuce side down.
The letuce should be stuck to the bread with honey mustard so it doesn't fall off when you turn it upside down to cover the
sandwich. Slice sandwich in half with a knife. Wrap in tightly in plastic wrap. Use too much wrap. Tape on label. Tadaaa!
Weighs one pound. Costs Four Bucks.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,
and effects,
against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and
no warrants shall issue,
but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place
to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Ethan Allen Tower

"During the 1992 campaign, Bill Clinton
sometimes spoke of a 'twofer' (two for the price of one) presidency,
implying that Hillary would play an important role in his
administration."

The first time I ever saw Taxi Driver was on a rainy night in Budapest. The first time I ever saw Goodfellas was on a cool fall evening in Philadelphia.

The first time I ever saw The Big Lebowski was on a warm spring day in Austin Texas.

It's easy to watch The Big Lebowski. The movie doesn't pressure you. Going bowling with Walter and Donny is exactly like being at the O.P. Nobody's in a position to judge you. Plus there are a lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what have yous that make it fun. Walter is deeply emotional because of his trauma in the Vietnam war. Donny dies. Flea and Tara Reid are in classic form. And of course, there's The Dude.

I just watched Howard Dean on Meet the Press. The headline is he wants the superdelegates to vote by June. He did a good job. Russert couldn't bait him into a debate about hypotheticals. "Dean did well," I told Poopsie "He's smarter than Tim Russert."

I ran this post twice already. When I feel nostalgic and have nothing to say I run this post. Today I am visiting Dr. Gilbert Suitor to get my eyes checked. My mother took me to see Dr. Suitor when I was, like, eight. Man, Suitor must be getting up there. Not as old as his partner at the Cherry Street office, Dr. Rist, but still old. Anybody ever go to Suitor and Rist's office next to Pennycluse? Ancient. The place is straight out of Shelburne Museum. Another place I used to go with my mom.

Oh- I just thought of another blurb for the "about me" page. Once I did a stage-dive at a Mighty Mighty Bosstones concert at Johnson State College. Early 90s I think. As I flew toward the crowd somebody punched me in the eye really hard and gave me a huge shiner. Impossible to tell who.

OK Archie Bunker. Enjoy this syndicated re-run about the All in the Family theme song. Bah.

****Click Picture to Hear Song.I'll write about the second mayoral debate later.

Even though I only have "broadcast level" cable, TV Land Network 'bleeds' into my cable service somehow and I get to watch it fuzzy for free. (Fox "News" also comes in, but perfectly clear- an obvious Adelphia conspiracy.) "All in the Family" is one of my favorite shows on TV Land. The IMDB Plot Outline: "A working class bigot constantly squabbles with his family over the important issues of the day."

On one episode I saw recently, a Jewish militant was killed by a car bomb while Archie, Gloria and Mike watched in horror. I'm not kidding. It's amazing to see what passed for comedy in the seventies. Well, not that scene specifically, but you know what I mean. Sitcoms were more hard-hitting then, than the news is today.

Anyway. I started ruminating about the theme song "Those were the Days" written by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams for the show which ran from 1971-1979. Everyone who knows the show is familiar with the song's performance by Carroll O'Connor and Maureen Stapleton at the opening of each episode. But have you ever really thought about the lyrics? When exactly were "the days" they're singing about?

My analysis of the lyrics:

Boy, the way Glenn Miller played!(1)Songs that made the Hit Parade. (2)Guys like us, we had it made. (3)Those were the days! (4)

And you knew where you were then.Girls were girls and men were men. (5)Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again. (6)

(1) Big Band Musician Glenn Miller lived 1904-1944.(2) The "Hit Parade" was a radio show from 1935-50. Sort of a precursor to "American Bandstand."(3) The first in a series of 'male-normative' phrases with sexist overtones.(4) When were the days? So far they must have been between 1935-1944 to include Glenn Miller & "Hit Parade."(5) The second sexist phrase, this time juxtaposing male maturity with female infantilization.(6) Hoover's presidency (1929-1934) saw the Depression begin. He lived 1879-1964.(7) That's a double-negative. It means they DID need a "welfare state."(8) Third sexist phrase. Use of the pronoun "his" implies that the speaker believes "everybody" doesn't include women.(9) Cadillac LaSalle (named for French explorer) An American car produced from 1927 to late 1950s.(10) When were the days? Apparently they didn't exist. Hoover was out office before the "Hit Parade" was ever on the radio. What is this crap? Didn't anybody bother to tell Norman Lear?

Yesterday was the third and final jury draw I had to attend at Chittenden District Court. Once again I was in a pool of potental jurors, and once again I was asked to go back to the gallery and not be a juror. That's good. I didn't really want to be picked.

As I was leaving, I saw that guy Ted Kenny. He lost to TJ in the primary for State's Attorney and is now working as a defense lawyer. He told me he reads this blog. Hey Ted. Nice to meet you.

What else is going on today? Big primary in Pennsylvania. Nice state. Philly has a nice train station and there's a big football stadium at Penn State in State College. I've seen them both in my little life.

Picking up on Senator Webb's comment from the last post...The last, best place to put the marble staircase from Battery Park to The Waterfront is here:

Zigag design. Lots of plateaus with benches to rest and look at the lake. Lots of landscaping, trees, flowers and art. Maybe the city could liscence a gelato cart for one of the plateaus.

Does the city own that land? I think we do. Anybody know? Everybody on board with putting a gorgeous marble staircase between Battery Park and Waterfront? We set that as a goal, get design proposals, pick one, then start building it. If the city can only afford say, ten steps per year- that's cool. They're marble. As long as we stick the plan, the city could have the steps in as few as 100 years. But I think people would donate privately to see this project made real. I'd personally donate $10.

There's a way for government to lead without taxation. It can show the way, and give people a choice. (That's a choice whether to donate to the steps or not, not whether or not the land gets used for the steps.)

I haven't had anything to say for about a week. Weather too nice. But I just updated and republished my "about me" page. My daughter was born and my mother died since I published it originally in November of 2006.

So the post you're reading is basically a re-run with a couple of amendments.

I added this amendment in honor of nice weather.

*I want to build a marble staircase from Batterry Park down to the waterfront. Tricked out with plateaus, benches, landscaping... what a place to watch the sunset. Instant tourist attraction.

On Monday Judge Dennis Pearson denied an appeal filed by Jean O'Sullivan asking him to reconsider his decision not to order a new Ward 7 city council election. A PDF of the ruling is here.

Some highlights:

"...Only recently promoted to the position of Assistant City Clerk, he [Ben Pacy] was suddenly faced with a situation for which he had been inadequitely and wholly unprepared...""...The court also percieves the City's continued reluctance to admit once-and-for-all that a violation (indeed, three seperate violations) of 17 V.S.A. § 2590(c) did occur, and the the City Charter provides no safe harbor...""...There is still no evidence that Mr. Pacy did not in fact return all ballots, and other materials to the box each time after he broke the seal and opened it, and thus no evidence that the actual election result for the Ward 7 council race , as recounted by the city council on 3/10/08, was affected..."

The Free Press's website isn't great, by the way. It's visually hectic and poorly organized. They make you answer a survey and they only keep their stories up for about a week. Then you have to pay for them. They didn't even have a non-scientific poll disclaimer on their dumb online poll, until I suggested it. On the other hand, they do have Ed Shamy. But I digress.

Getting back to my coverage of the hearing last Wednesday... The ladies at the courthouse couldn't copy the complaint for me because it was upstairs at the hearing. I guess they only had one copy. I couldn't take pictures without asking the judge for permission, so forget that.

I said hello to Paul Decelles and asked him for a quote. He said he was "disappointed" and said O'Sullivan's case was "purely partisan."

The first thing Judge Pearson did was take Leopold's name off the case. The case would be against the city in general, not Leopold specifically. Then he denied the city's motion to dismiss the case. Then Ken Schatz asked to have the case continued for further discovery, but he didn't have a decent answer to "what further discovery would you do?" when asked by the judge. The judge said "the complaint as a whole states a viable claim" that there was a 'defect in the election that questions its validity' so the hearing proceeded.

Editor's Note- The following is not word for word quotation, unless it happens to be in quotes. The Q&A may not be in perfect chronological order either, but they are close. These questions and answers are mostly paraphrased, but they give you the gist of what I heard. [My commentary will be bold.]

Perkinson called Leopold to the stand.

Leopold hobbled over with crutches and was sworn in. Leopold explained that he is the city's chief administrative officer (CAO) which means he is the Clerk-Treasurer. As the Treasurer, he is the CAO (yeah right? that's circular logic) and as Clerk, he "has general responsibilities for city functions, including overseeing the elections." He said there are about 35 people working under him in the Clerk-Treasurer's office, eight of whom worked on elections in some way.

Perkinson: Who managed the staff directly?

Leopold: Ben Pacy.

Perkinson: You are not responsible for what Pacy does?

Leopold: Basically no, because I was out of the office. Pacy only asked me a couple of questions leading up to the election of March 4 and I didn't discuss it with him again until two days after.

[This was a very disappointing answer. Leopold said he was not responsible for the actions of his subordinate. That is incorrect and dishonorable.]

Perkinson: Are you aware of the legal requirement to attend an election workshop?

Leopold: No, but Ben Pacy was in contact with the Secretary of State's office.

Perkinson: Do you know anyone in the Clerk's office who has had any election training?

[Jo LaMarche was the true City Clerk and she was shafted for years by Clavelle (in favor of Brendan "13K extra for life" Keleher) and now unfortunately by the Kiss administration. To think this Ben Pacy character was above her in the pecking order! That's an outrage! Burlingtonians should be outraged by that. Is it any wonder she quit?]

Perkinson: Do you think it was appropriate for Pacy to break the seals?

Leopold: Assistant city attorney Bergman said it was legal. The Secretary of State's office was unclear on that point.

[Dude... Yes or No please. What do you think? Because if you think it was OK, you're nuts. And he didn't even know Pacy broke the seal until the following Saturday?]

Perkinson: Is it your belief that no party should hold a majority on the city council?

Leopold: Yes. It makes my job easier if no party holds a majority.

[It would be harder to do the bidding of a Progressive mayor if the Progressive's had a majority?]

Perkinson: Did you tell Barbara Perry you were supporting her opponent because you didn't want to see Ed Adrian gain any more influence on the city council?

Leopold: No, I wouldn't have said such a thing.

Perkinson: Did you meet with any sitting city councilors to discuss strategy leading up to this last election?

Leopold: I met with Kurt Wright and Jane Knodell, along with David Zuckerman, Karen Paul and her husband to talk about how to support Karen's campaign.

Perkinson: When was this?

Leopold: I don't remember. I was recovering from my motorcycle accident and out of sorts because of medication. Maybe it was a Saturday. And except for Kurt Wright, we all met again the following Saturday to discuss the election.

[Great. You're whacked out on drugs because you tried to jump 40 barrels on your motorcycle and broke your leg, and you have an amateur with no training running the election. Later Leopold admitted he tried to put Pacy out in front on the recount too, before pressure forced him to do it himself. ]

Perkinson: Did anyone at these meetings question the propriety of the person in charge of counting the ballots working on a campaign?

Leopold: No.

The witness is dismissed. Ben Pacy is called to the stand and sworn in.

Perkinson: Are the votes supposed to be counted at the polling place?

Pacy: "In a perfect world."

[So what about IRV? If the votes have to be counted at the polling place, then IRV is against the city charter because the mayoral votes are now gathered at city hall and counted. And they're counted by Terry Boricious. I can't say I'm all that comfortable with that, either.]

Perkinson: "Is it your understanding that it is the duty of the clerk to ensure ballot boxes aren't tampered with?"

Pacy: We put the boxes in a safe place. In the Clerk's office in City Hall.

Perkinson: What authority allowed you to break the seals?

Pacy: I had a time crunch. I only had 48 hours to certify the election.

[You dummy! A time crunch doesn't give you any authority to break into the ballot box! Did you seriously not understand the question?]

Judge Pearson: What was the discrepancy that made you take action?

Pacy: There were approximately 70 hand counts. The tabulator counted 971-958 but there was all this hand written stuff on the tabulation sheet...36, 20, 3, 4... so the number represented to the folks at the polling station was 1010-982. The guy from LHS thought ward 7 was weird too. That's a high number of handcounts. I called the ward clerk Diane and asked how many handcount ballots there were and she said six or seven. I broke the seal on the box that said B, C, and D ballots. "I was a little nervous about it" so I asked Sue Trainer from the Clerk's office to join me.

[The numbers were all a jumble. I never really have been able to follow what happened since the time Kurt Wright told me about all this weirdness in the grocery store. But for Pacy to say "I was a little nervous about it" shows very clearly that he knew it was wrong to tamper with the ballots. Like it's not obvious. But what may be obvious to most people, might not be obvious to Pacy, if his testimony is any guide. Still this statement is a clear admission of a guilty conscience.]

Perkinson: How was the tabulation sheet transmitted to you from the polling place?

Pacy: Somebody in the Clerk's office handed it to me.

[No, you dope! Was it FAXed, emailed, delivered by currier, or what? "Somebody handed it to me." Give me a break! He didn't even know who!]

Perkinson: Did you ever compare the vote totals to the entrance checklist?

Pacy: No.

Judge Pearson: Do you have anything that shows the total number of votes cast?

Pacy: No.

Perkinson: When you broke the ballot box open, were there other people in the room?

Pacy: There were like fifteen people all over the place.

Perkinson: When did you learn you would take the lead role in running this election?

Pacy: I was appointed in November to oversee the Clerks's office. I didn't know I'd be running the election until Jo LaMarche quit in December.

Perkinson: Did Jonathan Leopold give you any direction or training on how to come up to speed on how to run an election?

Pacy: No, but I was in contact with the Secretary of State's office getting pointers on how to run the election. "I got the impression the Secretary of State's office was a little concerned."

[Did he just say that? That's pretty damning.]

Perkinson: So you were responsible for your own training?

[Has anybody seen Stripes? Where Bill Murry, Harold Ramis and John Candy have to train themselves? "Boom Chuga-Luga-Luga! Boom Chuga-Luga-Luga! Boom Chuga-Luga-Luga! Boom!" It's funny in a Bill Murry movie. Not so much in a Burlington election.]

*****

That's all I could stay for. I only expected the thing to run an hour and I had been there two. Poopsie needed me to run an errand and my parking meter had expired. And yes, I got a $10 parking ticket, but I hope this post is worth more than that to the city. I missed Barbara Perry's testimony and that of whomever else, unfortunately. But since it took almost a week to write up my notes, I guess I should be satisfied with the part of the hearing I witnessed.

A couple of things. One- Bob Kiss: You can't just let this slide. You need to fire Pacy or Leopold, or both. If not fire, then demote, suspend or punish somehow. You have to do something. Somebody on your team tampered with the ballots. Do something about it, or you risk losing the endorsement of this blog. Ben Pacy seems like a nice guy who made a mistake. He wasn't trying to change the election, but he made a serious mistake. He is in a position he is not qualified to handle. Through his entire testimony I never had the feeling that he "got it." Pacy was defiant and annoyed. Never contrite. Leopold was defiant and aloof. Never contrite. The person in charge of running the election needs to understand the sanctity of the ballot box. Pacy doesn't, therefore he isn't qualified. He's got the wrong job. Maybe move him back to Parks.

Two- This whole "Clerk-Treasurer-CAO" thing is baloney. It's a worse idea than merging Police and Fire. The functions are different. Leopold is the Treasurer, just as he was in the 80s. The "CAO-" Chief Administrative Officer is the Mayor, really. We still need a City Clerk, and we will never get one better than Jo LaMarche was, even though she never got the title. To think Ben Pacy was her boss is an outrage. And I am sorry, Mr. Kiss. Even you were not in the courtroom last Wednesday- it's your administration and the buck stops with you.

I'm just back from Chittenden Superior Court where the hearing of the matter of the confused ward 7 vote count of March 4 is underway. I was there for the first two hours and heard the testimony of Jonathan Leopold and his assistant Ben Pacy. I'll flesh out what I heard later, but for now I'll say testimony reveals Jonathon Leopold as aloof and Ben Pacy as in way, way over his head in his ability to fill Jo LaMarche's shoes when it comes to running the city's elections.

The ward seven city council race may not be overturned, but Ben Pacy should be fired. He broke the law when he broke the seal on the ballot box.

Sources close to BurlingtonPol say Shay Totten will be taking over for outgoing veteran political columnist Peter Freyne at Seven Days newspaper. He will be a guest columnist for Freyne's widely read Inside Track column on April 9 and take over officially May 7. Totten who used to run the Vermont Guardian and now works for Chelsea Green Publishing, will be looking to rename Inside Track but hasn't yet settled on a new tag.

"Front Porch Forum hosts 130 online neighborhood forums covering all of Chittenden County, VT. More than 8,000 local households subscribe and use it to share news with their clearly identified nearby neighbors. Already 30% of Burlington participates and as much as 90% of some areas."

"...This online community-building service is in the running to win a $35,000 grant that will provide much-needed seed capital. Front Porch Forum already made the Top 20 out of nearly 5,000 entrants; now they need your help to make the Final Four and secure the funding."

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In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars,
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